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Microsoft Hits $1 Trillion In Total Cumulative Revenue: Reports (mspoweruser.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has hit a major milestone: $1 trillion in all-time cumulative revenue. The finding was first spotted by Jeff Reifman, a tech consultant. According to him, Microsoft hit the milestone in its last quarter. Interestingly, Apple also hit $1 trillion in revenue in 2015. As for profits, Microsoft currently leads the chart with $265.2 billion with Apple trying to close in with $261.6 billion. "You might expect a company to announce a milestone like this and bask in this incredible accomplishment -- but not Microsoft," writes Reifman. "It chose to stay silent as it faces increased public scrutiny for holding $108.3 billion in earnings offshore (an incredible 41% of its all-time profit) and its history of tax dodging at home in Washington State."Microsoft blog MSPowerUser says it independently verified the numbers. According to which, Microsoft's total cumulative revenue as of last earnings call is 1001.569 billion.
"Tax Dodge" is all relative. The US Tax code requires any money earned overseas and brought to the US gets an additional tax on it on top of the corporate income tax paid in other countries. This is exactly why corporations leave their profits overseas, because it's effectively double taxed.
Here's an example. Irish corporate tax rate is around 10% and in the US it's about 35%. USA Corp earns $1,000 in profit in sales in the US, they pay $350 to the IRS and keep $650 as profits to either reinvest in the company by building new capabilities in the US, or distribute as a dividend to shareholders etc. Now USA Corp also earns $1,000 profit in Ireland. They pay $100 to the Irish government, but they're only allowed to deduct what they pay to the Irish government from their profits, so they still get charged 35% on the $900. So they pay the Irish government $100 and now have a choice, either leave the money in an Irish bank account or invest in their efforts in Ireland, or bring it to the US but in so doing they pay 35% on $900 (they can deduct the $100 they paid to Ireland), or $315, leaving them with $585 in profits.
Leaving them with the best choice they can possible make: leave the money in a bank account in Ireland. THey can still recognize the cash as an asset on their balance sheet, but if they bring it to the US their balance sheet value will drop significantly, in fact by 35% of cash on hand, hurting their shareholders.
It's that $315 that people say they are tax dodging, but the reality is that money wasn't earned in the US and isn't US profits. They've paid income tax on the profits in the country where those profits were earned, it's done. There's no incentive or way that the US can force them to do anything because that money is under the jurisdiction of another sovereign nation and those nations will not play ball with the US; if that money leaves those bank accounts in other countries it will be a significant blow to those countries' banking sectors.
What the government should do is declare a tax holiday, not 0% but 5%. There's $2.1 trillion overseas and it's not coming back until the cost of bringing that money here goes down; they want to bring it here because investing in the US by building facilities and sales here is far more productive than other countries. If they make it 5%, the government would get around $105B in tax revenue and the rest of the money would be here in the US for companies to use either distributing as dividends or building new operations and product lines. But no politician will agree to this because it'll be seen as a "tax cut for the wealthy" and every politician who pursues this agenda will be hammered in the next election.
So essentially we have a mexican standoff; the companies have no reason to bring the money here, the politicians won't risk their careers by making it palatable to do so, and the result is a bunch of rhetoric and BS and nothing happens and the only people who benefit are foreign banks.